Some Studies on the Removal of Chromium from Aqueous Solutions by an Adsorbent Obtained from Terminalia chebula

Abstract

Several methods of treatment have been suggested for the removal of chromium from raw water, which include chemical precipitation, reverse osmosis, ion exchange, foam formation, etc. The main disadvantages of the above processes are that they produce a large amount of sludge and there are no possibilities of metal recovery as they are very costly. The use of plants and other plant materials for the removal of the heavy metals has already been reported in the literature as the non-conventional adsorbents. In the present work, an attempt has been made to check the suitability of Terminalia chebula powder for removing chromium from raw water by adsorption and for suggesting an environmental friendly as well as economically feasible solution to overcome the problems due to the presence of toxic pollutants like chromium in drinking water. Batch experiments were conducted using aqueous solution of chromium to determine the chromium removal. Terminalia chebula powder (commonly known as karakkaya locally) has been collected locally and used as an adsorbent for all the batch experiments. Variation of chromium removal with dosage of adsorbent and initial pollution concentration is studied.